All or Nothing
Pass or Fail
Right or Wrong
Good or Bad
Pass or Punt
Get it?
Good.
Victory from the jaws of defeat.
As a result, the team is no closer to avoiding the worst-case-scenario.
But beyond the final score there were positives today.
Foremost among them was the future DPotY Eric Kendricks. The interception is easy to point to but on every play by Carolina he was around the ball. Someone was going to eventually but it's safe to say that he's taken the mantle from Harrison Smith as the best defensive player on the team.
Ahead of Kendricks on the defense, DJ Wonnum continues to make impact plays on weekly basis as well. Like every other member of the defense he didn't sack Bridgewater but his block proved to be the difference in the game. Truth be told, that makes me want to put it in the negatives, but finding a way to do that in year one bodes well for the future and that's the priority, so it's ultimately a positive.
In the same vein, not many people would have predicted that without Adam Thielen the receiving corp would be the unquestioned strength unless Cook left early with an injury. While Dalvin did miss some time, he started and he finished the game. Four pass catchers finished with at least 63 yards and both Jefferson & Beebe each scored. They all also wrangled 7 passes which lead to a team-high 74 yards by Olabisi Johnson. That almost feels like the sort of offense that a certain OC from a few years ago tried to have Kirk run.
It's the latest in what has maybe been the best stretch of games by the quarterback since he donned the colors. I don't know when he'll turn back into a pumpkin but given the previous 2.5 years of spectating it's hard to imagine that he'll keep this up for the rest of his playing career, which gets back to the whole worst-case-scenario conversation.
Beyond the undesirable victory there isn't much negatively to talk about.
Okay, yeah, Beebe with the muffed punt was very sub-optimal but the special teams as a whole seemed to start being less trashy than they have been in recent weeks. Bailey was 4/4 on his kicks and Skolquitt averaged more than 50 yards per punt. That's as good of a day as anyone should expect. The mental damage due to the long history of special teams gaffe's by this team can't color what they managed to do overall today.
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